USM Valor
__TOC__ The USM Valor is an Earth Defense Force military warship, a destroyer. It is the setting of Chapter 9: Dead on Arrival. It is shown to be patrolling the region in which the USG Ishimura was operating. It is later revealed that this was all part of the military's plan to destroy the Ishimura, which was in the system illegally. The Valor, under command of Captain F. Cadigan, was waiting for the Ishimura to transmit its location, at which point it would descend upon the Ishimura to assess the situation and, if necessary, destroy it. This information is contained in a military order found on a corpse of Cadigan on the Valor. Isaac boards the Valor to retrieve the singularity core to power a shuttle to escape; but in the process Hammond is killed by a Brute (who rips his leg off and throws him through a glass screen) and the Valor's engine is destabilized and explodes, causing irreversable damage to the Ishimura. Appearance The Valor is first mentioned in the preceding level, after Isaac managed to realign the communications array of the Ishimura. In their broadcast, the radioman of the Valor mentions picking up one of the Ishimura's escape pods. This pod had a Necromorph aboard, which, despite the valiant fight of the Marines aboard, eventually led to the Valor crashing into the Ishimura. The Valor is seen in full after Isaac killed The Slug camping atop the Communications Array, while Isaac is still seated in the Cannon Pit. It is of large size, although reasonably smaller than the Ishimura. Inside, it has a barracks, an infirmary, a firing range, engine room and and is dotted with numerous propaganda posters. It also has a singularity core that is completely compatible with the Ishimura's shuttles and the same weapons, ammo, rigs, lockers and etc., suggesting that the Valor and The Ishimura were built around the same time period, along with being a convenient gameplay conceit. Isaac is unable to avert the crash with ADS Cannon 47, no matter how much he fires upon the USM Valor. Armaments The Valor was also armed with nuclear weaponry, one of which broke open when the Valor crashed into the Ishimura. Due to a safety lock engaging because of the radiation hazard this posed, Isaac had to get rid of the nuclear debris before he could enter via one of the Valor's airlocks. In addition to the armaments of the ship itself (which may also included small attack craft, judging by some concept art), the marines aboard the Valor had access to a wide variety of military-grade versions of the standard tools located aboard the USG Ishimura and on Aegis VII. Given the presence of CEC-branded containers aboard the USM Valor and ammunition for Isaac's arsenal, it is entirely plausable that the CEC is a defense contractor, providing weaponized versions of it's standard mining tools for military use; or alternatively, that the Valor has such tools aboard as part of it's ship-boarding proceedures. Crew According to a vessel manifest scan on a console in Chapter 3 of "Thirteen", part 2 of No Known Survivors, the Valor has a total of 67 people aboard: 23 crew members; 3 service personnel; 2 custodial personnel; 1 "Extension/Familial" personnel, probably a wife or girlfriend of one of the crew, who lives on the ship with them but performs no real duties; and 38 personnel in the "Other" category, most likely Marines. The barracks on the Valor, however, has 78 bunks in it, indicating that perhaps the ship was a bit undermanned, thus making it more feasible that a single Slasher could have overwhelmed the crew and sabotaged the ship's systems. The Marines aboard have partly been turned into necromorphs, although Issac does encounter 3 non-infected Marines, one who dies shortly after he is encountered due to his right leg being severed, one who is pinned to the ceiling by a damaged gravity panel, and one Marine who runs through a door that locks shortly after, as well as dozens of non-infected bodies (suggesting they died in the crash), but due to the fact that Marines have stasis modules in their body armor, they are able to move many times the speed normal Necromorphs can, and are referred to as Twitchers. Controversy NOTE: Please discuss the controversy in the discussion section. Please leave the article alone. Any edits to show personal viewpoints will be deleted. There is much controversy in the Dead Space community over the infection of the Valor. Controversy includes: * Q: How was the Valor crew infected if there wasn't an Infector aboard to infect the corpses (a log found on the valor has the captain confirming the presence of multiple hostiles.)? Theories: :* There is another vector to corpse infection besides Infectors. :* The corpses were infected after the crash. :* During Issac's arrival to the Captain's Nest he is surprised by a necromorph in an unreleased escape pod. The pod is immediately launched into space. Later after fixing the comm's relay, the USM Valor contacts USG Ishimura saying that they picked up an escape pod. Maybe the pod had more then just a necromorph in it. * Q: How did an entire ship of marines fail at killing a slasher when one engineer could kill an entire ship full of necromorphs, especially since the marines knew about the alien threat? Theories: :* The marines weren't aware of the essential task of dismemberment, which is the only way to kill Necromorphs very fast and quickly. :* While the marines knew of the alien threat, they did not know the escape pod would contain a creature and were caught unprepared. :* The Slasher managed to sabotage systems aboard the Valor, causing it to crash. :* Isaac's survival is insignificant to the question, as Isaac surviving is based on gameplay. :* In conjunction with the above theory on dismemberment, it is possible that the marines were armed with pulse rifles which have a low dismemberment ability. :* It's also possible that when the escape pod was retrieved, the crew that opened it were not Marines, allowing the Slasher to quickly kill and infect a number of the unprepared crew before the Marines had a chance to arm themsevles and counter the threat. Notes * *he USM logo seen throughout the ship includes the Kanji character 天 (tian) meaning heaven or sky. *The vessel's Singularity Core is an in-joke; it's shaped like a Flux Capacitor. *While the "US" in "USM" is still unclear, the M clearly stands for Military, as the civilian ships Ishimura and Kellion are both named "USG". *When on board the USM Valor, if you look at the top left or right on a door, you can see the USM Valor logo. *The USM logo resembles a menpo worn by samurai, possibly reflecting an Oriental motif. This reinforces the idea that both the USM Valor and USG Ishimura were built at the same time, possibly even in the same place. Trivia *Strangely, some Unitologist Grafitti can be seen aboard the Valor, reinforcing the theory that Isaac may be hallucinating some, or even all of these writings. Category:Content Category:Spaceships Category:Technology